SNC Lavalin wins contracts for Alberta transmission line and Persian Gulf oil

Montreal — SNC-Lavalin capped a strong week on Friday by announcing an oil services contract in the Persian Gulf region and having its AltaLink subsidiary receive approval for a $1.5 billion transmission line extension in Alberta.

The Montreal-based engineering giant said its offices in Saudi Arabia and London have been awarded a five-year contract to perform a number of engineering, procurement and construction management support services for onshore and offshore hydrocarbon and industrial projects in the Persian Gulf region.

SNC-Lavalin didn’t provide a value for the contract from Khafji Joint Operations, a joint venture between the Aramco Gulf Operations Company and the Kuwait Gulf Oil Company.

Alberta’s utilities regulator also approved AltaLink’s application filed in March to build a 500-kilovolt, direct-current transmission line that will nearly double its rate base. SNC-Lavalin is expected to perform the engineering, procurement and construction portion of the project.

The approved Western Alberta Transmission Line will run 350 kilometres from Genesee, west of Edmonton to Langdon, east of Calgary.

Pierre Lacroix of Desjardins Capital Markets said the approval in Alberta reinforces that SNC-Lavalin is “well positioned to secure lucrative new contracts.”

The contracts cap a week in which SNC-Lavalin consortia were selected to build the $2.1 billion light transit rail line in Ottawa and a power plant that will produce 463 megawatts of power in Poland.

SNC-Lavalin’s share of the European contract is estimated to be worth nearly $184 million.

© 2012 The Canadian Press